With a whopping 3-month prison sentence, if found guilty. And what a coincidence – that should get these criminals back on the street just in for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

Isn’t that special.

Now, I’m no expert on Russian law, but I have a hard time believing that a criminal conspiracy to kidnap and torture young boys, in addition to filming them and then publishing the film online without their permission, only gets you 3 months in a Russian prison.

You’d probably get more jail time than that for misspelling Putin’s name.

What I am an expert on, however, is Googling. And wouldn’t you be surprised to find out that the Russians are actually quite tough on crime.

Even crimes against cats.

But you know who they’re not tough on? People who organize a criminal conspiracy to kidnap and torture gay youth.

Let’s walk through a few Russian “criminals” who are looking at more than 3 months in jail:

5 years in prison (potentially) for shooting a cat (under Russia’s “hooliganism” law).

6 years in prison (potentially) for blogger who was photographed at a rather raunchy party, and someone else posted the photos online (charge is “pornography).

John AravosisFollow me on Twitter: @aravosis | @americablog | @americabloggay | Facebook | Instagram | Google+ | LinkedIn. John Aravosis is the Executive Editor of AMERICAblog, which he founded in 2004. He has a joint law degree (JD) and masters in Foreign Service from Georgetown; and has worked in the US Senate, World Bank, Children's Defense Fund, the United Nations Development Programme, and as a stringer for the Economist. He is a frequent TV pundit, having appeared on the O'Reilly Factor, Hardball, World News Tonight, Nightline, AM Joy & Reliable Sources, among others. John lives in Washington, DC. John's article archive.

These people are ridiculous! I hope violence against gays in Russia would stop.
________________________________________________________________________________Baju Bayi Murah

Sheryl Hunter

that 15 year old kid in the video was found dead from his injuries the next day. Other than that I agree, political asylum was created for cases like this.

Dave

Gays in Russia are an endangered species and when you can’t protect members of an endangered species where they live, you move them out of danger. You get as many as you can on an airplane and you them to safety.

That should be our number 1 demand of our government: make asylum freely available to any Russian LGB who seeks it. Specifically include any of the young men abused by these neo-Nazi groups. Find that 15 year old kid and the others (their names are all disclosed on the videos) and have someone from our consulate go and talk with them and let them know that they have an option. Even if they don’t take it, it will probably give them strength to know that there is a safe exit from the nightmare.

We should demand this of Obama and we should demand that HRC and the so-called
“Task Force” make this a top priority.

Chris

Yeah, I don’t disagree with giving five years in prison to someone who shoots cats for fun.

hefetone

I love cats.

Anonymous

The worker abuse in Sochi is another outrage; one of many in Russia.

Bill_Perdue

Substitute Stalinism for Communism and you’ve got it right. During the second world war Stalin reopened monasteries and churches and in return the metropolitan
Yarushevich was ‘received’ by Stalin, who allowed him to convene a cult council for the first time in decades in return for support against the Nazi armies, who were pushing east.

Trotsky, when he described Stalinism as the “syphilis of the workers movement” was perfectly accurate.

Bill_Perdue

Putin is a not-so-former Stalinist and was a Lt. Colonel in the KGB when he joined the Yeltsin administration and United Russia in 1991. When Yeltsin resigned unexpectedly he became temporary President and hasn’t looked backs since.

His administration is very unpopular and not just with the LGBT communities. Large demonstrations by workers unionists and leftists have taken place and an anti-Stalinist socialist left is rapidly forming.

Okay, but don’t trivialize animal cruelty. It’s all bad and it all needs to be punished.

nicho

I’ve always seen Trip Adviser as Bad Trip Adviser anyway. Most of their reviews are garbage. I never rely on it for anything. So I’m not surprised.

nicho

A blogger who shared, but did not take, photos of straight Russian people having consensual public sex is facing a jail term of six years for pornography. Showing yourself torturing and sexually abusing gay people is apparently not such a big deal.

A sentence of many years or life says to the public, “Do not do these heinous acts or else.”

A possible sentence of three months says to the public, “Please, do keep doing these acts, we approve completely. Just stop posting your trophy-kill photos on Facebook.”

PeteWa

I don’t see why the perps can’t be charged with hooliganism and pornography (in addition to kidnapping, false imprisonment, torture) for what they did.

FLL

The current Russian regime is clearly trying to insulate Russia from outside influence. This is a doomed effort. Gay rights is pushing east whether they like it or not.

sonoitabear

In a new development, under growing pressure from Russian tour operators, Trip Advisor has begun disabling accounts of members who post anything negative about the torture/killing of gays under Russia’s “propaganda” laws…

FLL

Cuba barred Catholic clergy from being members of the Communist Party until 1990. Good move. This year, Havana celebrated International Day Against Homophobia with marches and cultural events. Cuba is no LGBT paradise, but it is a far sight better than the sorry crap that we’re seeing in Russia. A member of one of the neo-fascist groups near the Ural Mountains had the nerve to tell the press that he wants to see either national socialism (Naziism) or “a strict form of communism” (pick your favorite) take over to keep gay rights from spreading east to Russia from Europe. In any language, gay rights needs to push east:

English: Push to the East
German: Drang nach Ost
French: [insert translation; your French is better than mine]

pigboy

The cat shooter should get at least nine life sentences…………. come to think about it, so should the human murders.

nicho

The worst thing Russia did after the revolution was to allow the Orthodox church to function in any way. They thought they had things under control by strong state regulation of the church. During the Communist years, to become a priest or bishop in the church you had to be dedicated to the party line. The higher you got in the church, the more dedicated you had to be. So now, after the fall of Communism, the church and its hierarchy is the last solid repository of Communist Party thinking.

cole3244

interesting, russia has a more strident animal abuse (hooliganism) law than america, that says as much about us as it does about the unbalanced russian penal laws, both countries have their sacred cows or scapegoats if you will.

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"Family values" conservative GOP US Senate candidate Roy Moore of Alabama is in trouble. He stands accused of inappropriate sexual contact with four teenage girls, aged 14 to 18, when he was a 30-something lawyer.